‘Tis the season to plan poolside relaxing, beach day adventures, summer reading, backyard evenings, and road trips! This summer classical playlist will make your warm weather adventures even more fun.
You can listen to the whole playlist on YouTube, or scroll through the list below to make your own selections. Enjoy!
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun by Claude Debussy
A beguiling, lilting, and mysterious tone poem, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, composed in 1864, is a notable work from the classical canon. It’s likely that you’ve heard its famous flute melody before!
If the title sounds random and nonsensical, know that the piece was inspired by Stéphane Mellarmé’s poem “The Afternoon of a Faun.” With a quick read of this beautiful poem, the accompanying tone poem makes so much sense; Debussy loosely illustrates Mellarmé’s poem with his music. Artistic synergy.
Timothy Judd at The Listener’s Club did a fantastic analysis of Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, which is well worth a read.
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Overture by Felix Mendelssohn
A jaunty, uplifting piece written the classic sonata form (exposition, development, recapitulation), The Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream was inspired by Shakespeare’s play of the same name. It was one of Felix Mendelssohn’s crowning achievements. A standalone concert piece, Mendelssohn wrote this gem at age 17! It was such a success that he was invited, approximately 17 years later to write incidental music for a production of the play.
“Summerland” by William Grant Still
“Summerland” is a movement from Three Visions, a three-part suite for piano written in 1935. The piece was composed for William Grant Still’s wife, Verna Avey. Summerland was later arranged for chamber orchestra as well. The suite, with movements entitled “Dark Horseman,” “Summerland,” and “Radiant Pinnacle”, depicts the human soul’s after-life journey: the human body dying, the soul proceeding on for judgement. If the person led a positive life, his or her soul enters “Summerland.”
So while “Summerland” is a depiction of part of the afterlife, it also sounds like a musical embodiment of a languid yet joyful summer afternoon doesn’t it? And perhaps that’s just what heaven is.
“July” by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel
In 1841, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel wrote a thirteen-piece piano cycle, Das Jahr (The Year), as a gift for her husband, Wilhelm. Each piece represented one month of the year, with the 13th piece being a postlude. The point of these pieces was to create beauty and to collaborate artistically with her husband; she left room next to each piece for Wilhelm to sketch an accompanying picture. In July, Hensel explores heat and drought. A summer situation to which we can all relate!
Summer by Frank Bridge
A lyrical, lilting tone poem, Frank Bridge’s “Summer” will bring you to a lush and green, warm summer’s day–even if you’re stuck in the midst of an oppressive heatwave. This piece originally debuted in Spring 1916.
Death Valley Junction by Missy Mazzoli
Written in 2010, Death Valley Junction was commissioned by Santa Fe New Music:
“Death Valley Junction is a sonic depiction of the town of the same name, a strange and isolated place on the border of California and Nevada. The “town” is home to three people and consists of a café, a hotel, and a fully functional opera house. Death Valley Junction is dedicated to Marta Becket, the woman who resurrected and repaired the crumbling opera house in the late 1960’s and performed one-woman shows there every week until her retirement last year at age 86. The piece begins with a sparse, edgy texture — the harsh desert landscape — and collapses into a wild and buoyant dance. Marta Becket once compared herself to the single yellow flower that is able to, against all odds, flourish in the desert. This piece attempts to depict some of her exuberant energy and unstoppable optimism, and is dedicated to her.”
— Missy Mazzoli
Knoxville: Summer of 1915 by Samuel Barber
Knoxville: Summer of 1915 was composed by Samuel Barber in 1947, with James Agee’s poem by the same title serving as the lyrics. The poem is written from the perspective of a young child observing a Knoxville summer evening. Barber used portions of the poem, which he rearranged to accompany his music.
Agee’s poem is very evocative of a summer night scene, and Barber’s music is captivating. This piece is well worth a listen!
A Summer’s Tale by Joseph Suk
We round out our summer classical playlist with a one-hour-long tone poem by Joseph Suk. Composed between 1907 and 1909, the work packs a lot of action into an hour! Enjoy the ride!